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Ant invaders eat the natives, then move down the food chain
Date:12/18/2007

ing, Suarez said.

The researchers used a technique called stable isotope analysis to determine what the ants were eating. By calculating the ratio of heavy to light isotopes (molecular weights) of nitrogen in all members of an ecological community, scientists can determine if a particular organism is primarily a carnivore or herbivore.

What the researchers found surprised them. In the early stages of invasion the Argentine ants behaved much as they did in their own home ranges: They were carnivores, aggressively attacking and probably eating most of the other ants they encountered. But as they displaced the native species, they began foraging lower on the food chain.

Field studies showed that the ants were taking over an important food source: the honeydew excretions of aphids and scale insects that feed on plants.

These are really important, often fixed resources, from which ants can get a huge amount of their carbohydrate fuel, the energy to fuel their worker force, Suarez said. As the native ants are displaced, the Argentine ants start monopolizing these resources.

The impact on the natives was disastrous. Over a period of eight years, the number of native ant species in the study area went from 23 to two.

The findings point to a need for more long-term studies of native and non-native species, Suarez said, rather than the more common, short-term studies, which see only a fragment of the bigger puzzle.

The way the invasive species are interacting with the environment might actually be changing over time, Suarez said.

Only by following an invasion over time can researchers begin to understand the dynamics that allow alien species to win out over the natives, he said.


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Contact: Diana Yates
diya@uiuc.edu
217-333-5802
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign  
Source:Eurekalert

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Ant invaders eat the natives, then move down the food chain
Ant invaders eat the natives, then move down the food chain
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